These past two weeks, I had the most amazing time discovering Sicily – so expect some sun-drenched content coming this week! During our first days on the island, we stayed in one of the most charming towns I’ve ever been to – Noto. In contrast to big European cities, Southern region of Sicily has all the history of Rome along with the small-town breezy seaside charm of the Cinque Terre. Until you are in Noto, though, it’s hard to imagine just how close neighboring historic towns like Modica and Ragusa – and any number of Ancient Greek ruins and unspoiled beaches – are to the town center and to each other. Noto and its neighbors make sightseeing feel serendipitous, but it’s worth staying his for a couple of days to truly absorb the aura of this UNESCO-protected, eighteenth-century Baroque masterpiece of town. It’s easy to cover the town on foot in a single afternoon along its two main arteries, the Corso Vittorio Emanuele and the Via Cavour, which run east to west. Or if you use Noto as your base for exploring the region, as we did, you can walk the streets at a languorous gelato-eating pace at the end of each day, as if you lived there. My Noto guide is coming shortly – for now here are some captured moments (and plenty of cassatina!) of this Sicilian slice of heaven.

Photos by Edward Kanarecki. Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!